Press release from the FTC: A data broker operation sold the sensitive personal information of hundreds of thousands of consumers– including Social Security and bank account numbers – to scammers who allegedly debited millions from their accounts, the Federal Trade Commission charged in a complaint filed today. According to the FTC’s complaint, data broker LeapLab bought…
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MI: Lawsuit over Henry Ford Health data breach dismissed by appellate court (updated)
AP reports: The Michigan appeals court has reversed a decision and dismissed a lawsuit filed on behalf of 159 people in the Detroit area whose medical records were mistakenly made available online. There’s no dispute that a contractor at Henry Ford Health System made a mistake in summer 2008. But the court notes there’s no…
NY: Patient Calls NY Info-Sharing Unconstitutional
Jonathan Perlow reports: New York state is collecting confidential information on mental health patients to create a database of people it deems unfit to carry a firearm, according to a federal class action. Lead plaintiff Donald Montgomery claims the state created a reporting system, as part of the New York Secure Ammunition and Firearms Enforcement…
Medical Records Lessons from the Sony Breach
Ben DiPietro reports: Sony Pictures Entertainment could be penalized by regulators for the data breach that resulted in private health information of its employees becoming public, and could be socked with lawsuits as well. It remains to be seen which regulators might target the company, or which rules it might be accused of violating, but regardless of who…
Court case places patient-physician relationship in the balance
Via Dr. Ken Pope’s mail list, this news release from the AMA: Two essential elements of medical practice—patient privacy and the patient-physician relationship—are at stake in a case before a federal appeals court that involves a state prescription drug monitoring program (PDMP) and surveillance by the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA). The issue in question…
Controversial podcaster listened in on therapist wife meeting with her clients: lawsuit
Tu Thanh Ha reports: Already controversial for counselling his followers to shun their parents, a Toronto-area podcaster is facing allegations he listened in on his therapist wife as she met with distraught patients. Stefan Molyneux is a self-described libertarian philosopher. His wife, Christina Papadopoulos, is a psychological associate in Mississauga. The College of Psychologists of…